The Future is Unwritten - can Good King Henry help?

The world seems split into three camps right now.

• Some look ahead and see abundance — Elon Musk’s vision of a future where technology frees us from scarcity.

Others see only hardship — collapse, struggle, survival.

And then there are those who stay focused on today, one foot in front of the other, not looking too far either way.

This pattern isn’t new. History shows it again and again: people surviving day by day, dreamers believing things will get better, pragmatists seeing only what’s in front of them.

Let’s set aside the dream of plenty for a moment. I love it, and I believe it has a place in our future — but the road there is rocky, and we need to walk it with eyes open.

Humans have survived astonishing things: drought, flood, plague, war. Often with the quiet help of the planet itself — plants that simply grow, year after year, offering food, medicine, fibre, without asking much in return.

One of the most curious is Good King Henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus). No one’s quite sure where the name comes from — some say it’s a nod to Henry VIII, others trace it further back — but the plant itself is extraordinary. The young shoots taste like asparagus. The leaves are spinach-like. The seeds can be ground into flour. Even the roots are edible.

It’s a super-plant in every season, growing in poor soil, needing little sun, reliably coming back as a perennial.

And yet… it was forgotten. Replaced by flashier newcomers — spinach, asparagus — that were more profitable, more fashionable, more “modern.”

Now, in a time when the future feels so uncertain, these humble, resilient plants are being remembered. Most of us don’t have grandparents passing down this knowledge anymore, so we turn to books, the internet, AI — rediscovering what was once common.

Humans are storytellers.

But in recent decades we’ve become obsessed with survival: the job to pay the mortgage, the lifestyle that makes us acceptable, the success that gives us social standing.

We’ve been distracted from the deeper stories — the ones that help us imagine, innovate, and flourish. In a world where information is at our fingertips, we need to read, discuss, share. Because stories create possibility. They help us dream beyond scarcity and toward abundance. They remind us that imagination — not just technology — is the greatest driver of a better future.

I’ve attached some information about Good King Henry: how to grow, harvest, and store it, plus a few simple recipes.

Sometimes just knowing something is there is enough to spark a conversation.

And who knows where those conversations can lead…

With love from a small corner of France,

Mirrie ✨

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